ANCHOR BORROWERS’ PROGRAMME: CBN Calls For Active Participation From Genuine Farmers In Delta

Following the low turn out of farmers in Delta State to fully participate in the ongoing Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, the Branch Controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in the state, Elizabeth Agu and the management team of the apex bank have called on farmers to seize the opportunity to etter their lots.

The Branch Controller made the call when leaders and members of the Indigenous Newspapers and Magazines Chapel (INMC), of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council had a media parley with the CBN team in Asaba.

She assured Deltans on behalf of the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele that the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme would get to the farmer who really deserves to be part of the programme, “we are already doing it but we are going to redouble our efforts, I assure you on that”.

One of the officers in charge of the programme, Mrs Uwaifoh Ekpen, lamented that despite the vigorous awareness created across the state, peasant farmers had rather not turn out for the exercise.

She disclosed that it took them two years to carry out sensitization to farmers, revealing that some who registered for the programme have multiple Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) which stalled their successful enrolment, “after we sent their names to NIMC, we discovered that ony one person has up to 10 BVN numbers”.

“This is the second year that we are trying to bring Deltans into the programme, it didn’t start today. We have gone as far as Ughelli, but the problem we had is you Deltans because the process of verification has to do with your BVN. We asked farmers to give us their names and BVN, you will see a list of about 200 and you see one BVN for more than 10 persons. And when we sent the soft copy to NIMC, through our head office where they will verify your BVN, as it comes back, they will give us the ones that are duplicated, verified and invalid”, bemoaning that in a list of 200 farmers, it becomes difficult to get 50 genuine farmers.

While citing the instance, she said, “Delta State, you people are giving us headache. Delta State doesn’t also pay when inputs are supplied to farmers because if you benefit today and you do not pay back, tomorrow another person cannot get. N2 billion was given to this same Delta State, we are even begging them to bring N1.00 now they cannot account for it. So, when we so when we give you cash, we see a lot of portfolio farmers. That is why CBN is saying we will give you inputs so that only the real farmers will come out”.

She revealed that there are a lot of portfolio farmers in Delta State, “in this same Delta State, feeds were given to farmers and they sold them”, pointing out that 682 fish farmers have started while those for cassava would come up on 12th of this month, pleading that anyone that come across real farmers should help to bring/direct them to the Asaba branch of CBN”.

She also hinted that the team have visited Kwale, Ndokwa West and Issele-Uku, Aniocha North local government areas of the state for sensitization on cassava, “one of the way for you to be reached, is to form yourselves into cooperative of 10”, lamenting that since the withdrawal of cash from the programme, the number has dropped.

It would be recall that on Wednesday 31st May 2017, the state governor, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, lamented that a little over 4, 000 farmers have registered for the programmes as against 30, 000 and 40, 000 in some northern states.